Cooking foods such as cabbage, the presence of cats and dogs, cigar smoke, burnt toast among other things are all sources of offending olfactory sensations. To alleviate these odors room deodorizers and air fresheners were invented. The first ones were liquids that were delivered through wicking action from a reservoir, Airwick.TM. was an early product of such category.
The next product to come along which still exist in the marketplace are the propellant-based air fresheners and room deodorizers. Previously they used fluorocarbons as the propellent, but more recently isobutane has become the propellant of choice.
The difference between a room deodorizer and an air freshener is that an air freshener only marks the odor that is present, while a deodorant "eats" or destroys the odor present by a believed chemical reaction.
The benefits of vitamins and minerals in tableted form as food supplements are quite well documented. Indeed many people in the U.S.A. and elsewhere take vitamin C tablets to ward off colds. Others take vitamin E to retard the signs of aging and to hasten the healing of cuts and wounds.
It is also well known that the delivery of tabletized and pelletized vitamins to the body is slow due to the need for these to be chewed up and digested prior to the delivery of their precious benefits to the human body.
Vitamin therapy is one of the fastest growing areas of health maintenance. Today antioxidants is a big buzz word and vitamin C is indeed such a compound. Thus, it is seen to be beneficial to take vitamin C, as was first popularized by Dr. Linus Pauling.
There are many factors that determine the amount of benefit one can device from the ingestion of vitamin C. Each individual reacts differently. The dissolving rate in the body and the amount of the vitamin actually absorbed by every person is different when considered alone. Add to the equation the presence of various types and quantities of food in the stomach and the intestine, and again the absorbency rate can be and is affected. Also some people suffer diarrhea or stomach irritation from the vitamins in pill format.
Recent research has shown that intra nasal delivery systems may be superior to oral delivery of vitamins such as A, C and E. The cell systems of the nasal cavity have been found to absorb certain vitamins rapidly and efficiently, thereby avoiding degradation of the vitamins by stomach acid, and the inhibition of delivery of benefits, due to the presence of food in stomach or intestine.
Vitamins and other medicaments that are delivered indirectly such as by being forced to exude from a film forming material such as the aminopolysaccharides and their derivatives as disclosed in claimed in Partain et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,946,870 while perhaps delivering the intended medicament, do so ever more slowly than can be accomplished using the procedure of this invention. In the Partain procedure the medicament is introduced into the body topically indirectly, in that the medicine must be laid down in the film carrier and then absorbed. Whereas in this invention, the discrete droplets of the aerosol spray, or the droplets from the dissemination from a pad from the air blowing over the pad, produce discrete tiny droplets that are easily ingested during breathing. Such an introduction is preferable. Granted that Partain can use an aerosol for delivery, but the object is to form a film first and then to ingest from the film, whereas in the Mettler procedure, the ingestion is direct without any dwell time within a film carrier.
Of course, the intent of Partain is totally different from the intent of Mettler. Partain seeks to medicate an individual with a medicine directed to that person's attention. But for Mettler who has been active in the room deodorizer business for many years, witness his several United States patents in that field of endeavor, the intent is to provide an improved room deodorizer than benefits anyone and everyone who enters the room, by permitting those people to gain the benefits of propellant delivered vitamins present in the mist or discrete droplets of the air of a nicely smelling room. Additionally, any of the compositions of this invention as released from the wick or pad that might impact furniture, would not leave any type of film or stain thereon.
At least one cold remedy; namely, Primatene Mist which contains bronchial dilator ingredients delivers ascorbic acid along with its other ingredients in an attempt to aid the respiration of an ill person. But this device is not one for general delivery into the environment, i.e., a whole room.
Unfortunately most people do not want to carry around personal inhalers to shove up their nostrils to receive medicated vitamin C especially when there is no difficulty in breathing. Also children don't know how to use these inhalers.
Thus there was found to be a need for a way to nasally deliver vitamins to the nasal passages of the general populous without the need for an inhaler.
It is an object therefore of this invention to provide a breathable composition that contains vitamin C and/or vitamin E.
It is an additional object to provide a vitaminized composition that can be used to mask and/or deodorize ambient air and which is readily deliverable.
It is a further object to provide a pad in the shape of wick or in the shape of a disk, impregnated with a vitaminized composition for direct nasal delivery of vitamins C and E.
It is yet another object to provide a process for the regular and continuous delivery of vitamins C and/or E to the nose without the need for a personal inhaler to fit up the nostril.
It is a still further object to provide a vitaminized room deodorizer pad that can bring vitamins to the occupants of the room which has a pleasing aroma.
It is a yet further object to provide a vitaminized air freshener that can bring vitamins to the occupants of a room from a discrete relatively small quiet apparatus.
It is one further object to provide a method for the continuous periodic delivery of vitamins to the occupants of a room.
These and other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.
The invention accordingly comprises the device possessing the features properties and the relation of components which are exemplified in the following detailed disclosure and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the appended claims.
For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention reference should be made to the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, if present.